The project will also include the city’s two cemeteries, the , just off Mansfield Road.
Photos, memories and ephemera
The study has been funded with a £97,000 grant from the , led by the , which aims to help us understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life.
The project will be led by , Professor of English Regional History in the University’s Department of History, in collaboration with Dr Paul Elliott, a Reader in Modern History at the .
Professor Beckett said: “One of the key requirements of this project will be to encourage the involvement of the general public and we are especially keen to hear from people who may have old photos or ephemera — or even their own memories — from these open spaces that they would be willing to share.”
As part of the project, the academics will be working closely with the Friends of the Arboretum, Friends of the Forest, Nottingham Women’s History Group and Nottingham City Council’s Department of Communities, Sport, Culture and Parks on researching the history of Nottingham’s green spaces, the role they have played in the social fabric of the city and safeguarding these areas of interest and beauty for future generations.
Protecting and conserving
This includes providing academic support and expertise to groups in developing their research skills and making full use of local resources including the Nottinghamshire Archives and the Local Studies Library.
The local community groups are also taking a lead in deciding the outcomes of the project, including the production of new information boards outlining the history of the sites and developing a fuller understanding in the role that women played in protecting and conserving these areas.
The project will be launched at the Annual Arboretum History Talk taking place at Nottingham Arboretum in the bandstand at 6pm on Friday May 17. Dr Paul Elliott and women’s historian Rowena Edlin-White will look at the Sherwood Forest Group of writers, radicals and artists who campaigned for new forms of popular rational recreation during the nineteenth century including the establishment of public parks such as the Nottingham Arboretum.
The event is free to the general public and those interested are asked to meet at the bandstand in the park, which is at Waverley Street in Nottingham.
More information about the Social World of Nottingham’s Green Spaces project is available online at
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